Mission and History

Wave Farm is an international transmission arts organization driven by experimentation with the electromagnetic spectrum. We cultivate creative practices in radio and support artists and nonprofit organizations in their cultural endeavors.

Based in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley, Wave Farm is a media arts center, media platform, and arts service organization. Wave Farm offers residencies and fellowships, a research library, and interdisciplinary outdoor installations. We operate FM radio station WGXC and host many online radio channels. Wave Farm provides fiscal sponsorship, consultation, and grants to artists and organizations.

Wave Farm's Research and Production Program features residencies in transmission arts and broadcast radio art research fellowships. Extensive online archives document and contextualize this work. Wave Farm Radio: WGXC-FM is a full-power, non-commercial, listener-supported station in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley. With a station motto of "Radio for Open Ears," WGXC transmits 3,300 watts to more than 78,000 potential listeners on 90.7-FM and unlimited international listeners at wavefarm.org/listen. Wave Farm’s Art Park features long-term installations that amplify the environment revealing what is otherwise unheard or unseen. Grants and Consulting Services activities include NYSCA regrant programs, fiscal sponsorship, and consulting services that take shape as curatorial projects and technical support.

Wave Farm began in March 1997, founded by drummer Greg Anderson, visual artist Violet Hopkins, and DJ Tom Roe, as a microcasting collective in Brooklyn, NY called free103point9. The group was an active participant in the U.S. microradio movement, an activist and advocacy effort that helped create this country’s low-power FM radio service, which provides a licensing opportunity for small broadcasters operating transmitters of 100 watts or less.

From 1997 to 2004 free103point9 ran a venue for performance and experimental sound in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The “free103point9 Project Space” was home to a lively roster of artists working in noise, free jazz, electronic composition, and other experimental fringe genres. Many of these artists encountered microradio for the first time through free103point9. As a result, a local and international community of artists started to think conceptually about the transmission spectrum as a creative medium, becoming invested in a “hands-on” relationship with the airwaves. free103point9 launched an online radio station in 2001 engaging new and global audiences, and embarked on a series of radio experiments, projects, and performances internationally.

Driving free103point9’s activities since its inception is the philosophy that airwaves are public space and should therefore be accessible by the public for creative purposes, experimentation, and risk-taking. In 2002-2003, free103point9 incorporated and secured 501(c)3 non-profit status, evolving from an artist collective to an arts organization whose mission is to define and cultivate Transmission Arts.

In 2005, free103point9 expanded activities to Greene County, launching an artist-residency program, outdoor performance series, and installation park called Wave Farm in the northern foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

free103point9 submitted an application to the FCC in October 2007 during a rare filing window for full-power non-commercial educational FM radio stations. The FM station, which would take several years to realize, was planned to serve both sides of the organization's roots: radio art and the amplification of community voices on the airwaves.

In 2009, free103point9 became a regrant partner of the New York State Council on the Arts, Electronic Media and Film Program, an area of program services that expanded exponentially since serving artists, organizations, and incarcerated individuals across New York State. On February 26, 2011, Wave Farm Radio: WGXC-FM went live on air at 90.7-FM. Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves, a publication identifying 150 key transmission art works as a genealogy for the genre, was authored by Galen Joseph-Hunter with Maria Papadomanolaki and Penny Duff and published by PAJ Publications later that same year.

From 2013 to 2015, as part of an organization-wide strategic planning process, free103point9 began using Wave Farm as its organizational name and identity. Wave Farm celebrated its 20th Anniversary year throughout 2017 with a series of special events and live durational broadcasts.

In 2018, Wave Farm adopted a new WGXC station slogan, "Radio for Open Ears," in conjunction with changes to the 90.7-FM program schedule that fully integrated radio art, sound art, and experimental music with community public affairs content.

Wave Farm’s Radio Artist Fellowship launched in 2021 in conjunction with WGXC 90.7-FM’s 10th Anniversary. From 2021 to 2025, Wave Farm experienced tremendous program growth and staff expansion culminating in leadership transition. In December 2025, Wave Farm’s founding Executive Director, Galen Joseph-Hunter announced retirement from her role in conjunction with a new Co-Director model at the organization.

In 2027, Wave Farm celebrates its 30th anniversary under the leadership of Co-Directors Bianca Biberaj and Meredith Kooi.